AMES, Ia. — As the minutes started piling up for Iowa State star Bridget Carleton for the second straight game, Cyclones coach Bill Fennelly's assistants started asking if he wanted to give his senior guard a breather. But whenever they’d ask Fennelly, he’d pretend not to hear them. In his mind, there was no good moment to give his best player a break.

“I asked her one time if she was tired,” Fennelly said. “I didn’t care what she said; I was going to ignore that too.”

It’s a good thing. Carleton’s big play throughout the game — especially in the final minute — propelled Iowa State to a 67-64 win over Auburn in the semifinals of the preseason WNIT at Hilton Coliseum on Tuesday night. The Cyclones advanced to Sunday’s finals, also at Hilton, thanks in large part to Carleton. She finished with 15 points, 13 rebounds and eight assists.

“She’s just a special kid and a special player,” Fennelly said.

Carleton showed up when it mattered most for Iowa State. She helped the Cyclones overcome a 15-point deficit in the first half and brought her team back to life late in the game when after they'd blown a 10-point lead with under a minute to play.

But even Carleton had her moments, missing a pair of free throws with 34 seconds remaining in a tie game. Carleton was determined to make up for the misses, though, and she managed to — in a big way. First, she drew a charge on Auburn’s Janiah McKay, giving Iowa State the ball back with 13 seconds left. Then, Carleton gave the Cyclones a two-point lead when she connected on a layup with nine seconds left. She put the finishing touches on her big night when she blocked a shot by McKay with two seconds remaining.

“At the end of the game, the best players show up,” Fennelly said. “For them, McKay hit some unbelievably tough shots — that’s why she’s a great player. And for us, it was Bridget.”

That’s why the star, who logged 40 minutes in Iowa State’s quarterfinal win over Northern Illinois on Sunday, didn’t come out of the game again on Tuesday — she was just too valuable.

“I’m really proud of our team — the way we fought through it,” Carleton said. “We went on a run, they went on a run and we ended up crawling back and sneaking one out.”

That’s exactly how things went down for Iowa State, which, after a slow start, fell into a big deficit. It wasn’t until a late run in the second quarter that the Cyclones cut the lead to nine, heading into halftime. A 10-0 run in the third brought the Cyclones to within three. They managed to tie the game when Madison Wise connected on a 3-pointer at the end of the third.

Iowa State scored the first eight points of the fourth quarter, including a pair of 3-pointers by Ashley Joens, to take a 53-45 lead.

"She was huge for about four minutes," Fennelly said of Joens.

But Auburn answered back with a 10-0 run in the fourth that ended with McKay tying the game on a 3-pointer. Carleton and Iowa State answered back one last time in the frantic final quarter.

“It was really cool,” said Iowa State’s Meredith Burkhall. “It was amazing — both sides were hitting shots. I’m just glad we got enough defensive stops to win the game.”